And towards the end it actually seems like Sanjay Dutt’s intention was to pay a tribute to his father through a film. About a fourth of the film seems to be dedicated towards how great the man was, even if he wasn’t the best of fathers to a young Sanjay Dutt. Sunil Dutt, his father though, is put on a pedestal like no other biography could.
So, hagiographical the film is certainly not. He must have some redeeming factors, right? He seems to have a supportive wife and people who like him enough to have a film made with the sole purpose of proving his innocence. It doesn’t even talk much about the person he might be to the people around him. It almost certainly is deliberate about leavin his love life out. Now, you add on the Sanjay Dutt layer and it only makes you wonder about the things deliberately kept out of the film. I don’t remember the last time a film made me analyse a flawed character so. It does seem like the man’s self-esteem issues continue though, for he has a film made about this life to prove things to a world he claims to not care about. And also, at these times at least, he does not try to shift the onus elsewhere. The audacity is appalling and unacceptable. However, it all comes across as pushing the blame to the situation, a bad choice in friendship, an excuse that seems absolutely acceptable in the situation and so on.Īnd just when I was about to dismiss the character as a blame-shifting loser, I realised, that he does own up to some of his greatest flaws – not being loyal in his relationships and not being professional. Sure, not everyone who has their reasons store arms, I don’t know if some of them do, but this particular character did. And ever since, the man says, the press blew it out of proportion. When this child, now a man, was accused of storing arms, he accepted the charge and said he had his reasons. Sure not all people who disappoint their parents turn to drugs. Under pressure, a child took an escape route. Till here, the story sounds like it could have happened to any family. The first few times he used drugs, there were triggers. When a gullible, clueless, rich brat becomes a rebel, he ends up making the wrong friends and taking up self-destructive habits. This child had self-esteem problems induced by daddy issues. Stripped off the celebrity status, Sanju is the story of a troubled child who seems like he needed parenting at least until he was 44. It really helped that I tried to forget that this was a celebrity’s story who society has already judged one way or the other. However, like the scene, the film builds up and keeps you engaged. Only that this 2 minute 55 second scene is a 2 hour 40 minute film. But, like Sholay’s true friend, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajkumar Hirani is trying his best to convince us, the audience (mausiji) of the friend’s innocence. Our hero is a self-confessed drug addict, womanizer, listless, brazen brat. Sanju reminded me of the famous ‘ mausiji’ scene from Sholay. I am really hoping the movie will go beyond being just another hagiographical account, that too one in which the hero of the story had many a vice.
At the same time, even though we are used to Rajkumar Hirani’s films being message films, the message of this film might quickly just become, “My name is Sanjay Dutt, and I am not a terrorist.” Other than that, as intriguing as Dutt’s life has been and as balanced a view the trailer makes it out to be, maintaining that balance would be an uphill task over the length of the film. But now, over the 2-3 hour span of the film, Ranbir Kapoor has to be able to make us forget how well he has transformed so that we feel like we are watching Sanjay Dutt himself. As a basic requirement, Ranbir Kapoor would have to look like Sanjay Dutt and be able to emulate his mannerisms. The good news is and the bad news could be that Ranbir Kapoor looks mind-blowingly like Sanjay Dutt.
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